Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) sent messages to all members of Congress terminating their positions, stating “Your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment.” All Democratic and independent members of Congress, as well as two Republicans, found themselves locked out of their offices after everything inside had been confiscated.   read more

Bucher said she received about 50 complaints, including threats of violence, from people who don't want to vote in a mosque. "If we are going to use places of worship as polling places, we should not discriminate," Deutch said. "People of religion need to understand that we all have a common enemy -- those who do violent acts in the name of religion," said CAIR's Omar Saleh. "...By removing the polling place you let the terrorists win. They want to instill fear and this is one way to do it."   read more

Marlow said the bill has been a model for legislation in other states. "Remember where we are right now," he said. "A private employer can say 'I want to see your Facebook account or you're fired.' It happens all the time. Google it. There are hundreds of cases; not just employees or potential employees, but students, tenants who are required by landlords to hand over their passwords. Social media has no First Amendment protection."   read more

At UT Austin, faculty have been especially vocal against the new law. Their lawsuit was filed assuming UT professors would be able to keep guns out of their offices. The professors want the right to keep them out of their classrooms, too, said attorney Renea Hicks. "The challenge...was in the ability to exercise the option to keep guns out of the classroom," she said. "The issue is...Do individual professors have a right to exclude guns from the classroom?"   read more

“Absent a search warrant,” wrote the judge, “the government may not turn a citizen’s cellphone into a tracking device.” Lawyer Nathan Wessler said the ruling was the first by a federal judge to suppress evidence obtained through the warrantless use of a cell-site simulator. “A federal court has finally held the authorities to account,” Wessler said, adding that the opinion “strongly reinforces the strength of our constitutional privacy rights in the digital age.”   read more

"FOIA has become a tool of secrecy," Cullier said. "Agencies are gaming the system, hiding information from the public, like information on unsafe drinking water, and unnecessary spending. The Obama administration has set new records on secrecy. They are stamping 'No' more frequently, even as they process requests faster. Seventy-seven percent of the time, people are told 'No,' or that the government can't find it."   read more

In the U.S., officials have derided “inversion deals,” which allow a U.S. company to move its headquarters overseas to cut its tax bills. In Ireland, they are celebrating them. The Irish government Tuesday revised the country’s economic growth rate in 2015 to 26.3% from a preliminary estimate of 7.8%. Ireland’s economy has been on the upswing since the country repaid its bailout, and at play was the magic of those inversion deals and other sleights of finance.   read more

In a harshly worded opinion, Judge Pechman said the state is not taking "all of the steps necessary to protect the rights of some of our most vulnerable citizens." She wrote: "The people of Washington deserve to have their mental health needs and the needs of their spouses, parents, children, and friends attended to with the same urgency and dignity our society expects hospitals to respond with when presented with a broken bone or a cancerous tumor."   read more

The lawsuit, according to industry and legal experts, is the first of its kind to go to trial in the U.S., and its outcome could help shape future fights over coal ash ponds and the extent to which certain federal regulations apply. Whichever way he rules, experts said, Gibney's decision is likely to be appealed. But the case could lead to a definitive ruling that affects coal ash disposal around the country. "This has Supreme Court written all over it," said Professor Patrick Parenteau.   read more

While some deported veterans believe they earned citizenship by signing up for military service, others were misinformed. "That's one of the greatest tragedies of this. People didn't realize that they weren't already a citizen," Pasquarella said. "I think that the fact that a veteran who serves in our armed forces and goes to fight our wars could come home from service and then be deported is news to most Americans. I think most Americans would be shocked to learn that that is happening."   read more

Eight inmates were attacked by gang members who jumped out of a closet and beat and stabbed them, some of them as many as 18 times. They claim that CCA hid its "cruel and unusual punishments" from the state, despite repeated lawsuits against CCA over the year. The Associated Press reported in 2013 that CCA had falsified reports to hide understaffing, in violation of a court order and its $29 million annual contract with the state.   read more

The average pay gap between female and male orthopedic surgeons was nearly $41,000. The difference was about $38,000 among oncologists, about $36,000 among gynecologists and $34,000 among cardiologists. Radiology was the only specialty in which women were paid more--by roughly $2,000. “This paper is going to make women academic physicians start a conversation with their institutions to promote transparency and gender equality, because at the end of the day, it’s not fair,” said Dr. Arora.   read more

Among the protesters were many who showed up with AR-15 rifles. Because they ran in the middle of the shooting, police viewed them as suspects. “There should be some way to say I shouldn’t be bringing my shotgun to a Mavericks game or to a protest because something crazy should happen,” said Mayor Rawlings. “I just want to come back to common sense.” The state’s open-carry culture, he said, had imperiled people on the streets of Dallas.   read more

Herman thought he would never see Fred again, and no idea that his long-lost friend had spent weeks burning up the phone lines to get Herman his Purple Heart — and to keep it a secret. "I'm almost crying, ya'll. I never thought this would happen," Herman said after Swan pinned the combat medal on him. He choked back tears. So did Swan. "It shocked me. Tears came into my eyes ... I never expected this," said Herman. "I'm honored. I appreciate everything they did for me. Everything."   read more

Plumbing the reasons behind the woeful numbers, the Pew researchers found -- no surprise, really -- that this year's presidential contest is widely viewed as being excessively negative with little, if any focus on the concerns of real Americans. Just 27% of voters feel the campaign is "focused on important policy debates." Large numbers of supporters of both Trump and Clinton view their choice as more of a vote against the opposing candidate than an expression of support for their candidate.   read more

Robot designer William Cohen said that robot was built to save lives instead of ending them. Although he was relieved the killing of the armed suspect in Dallas assured that no other officers or bystanders would be harmed, Cohen says he's worried about what might happen next: "It opens a whole new set of questions of how to deal with these kinds of situations. "Where are the police going to draw the line when trying to decide between continuing to negotiate and doing something like this?"   read more

Prof. Glass saw a student display animosity toward her assistant. If the gun law had been in effect, Glass says, it "would have left her hesitant to confront the student." Prof. Carter has been threatened by students with mental health issues. "All this would be made even worse were guns allowed into the classroom," she says. The professors say their right to self-defense is infringed by being "forced to allow handguns in their classroom."   read more